I had a great summer this year doing overnight bivy trips. You get so much riding in when you leave home midday Saturday, ride until 8pm, camp, then ride home again early next morning. 16hrs of Z2 yet only away from the family for Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.
A trip like this every third week or so plus a couple of more normal long rides in between and I stayed fit as a fiddle all summer long.
When the prospect of a couple of cx races came up in September, I switched to 3 short, fast cx rides a week for only 2 weeks, then raced. I was pretty well as good as Iād ever been and had so much enthusiasm to throw at the race. Was in second place on race 2 until I messed up twice in one lap. Fought back hard but ended up 4th. It was brilliant.
So this is how Iām approaching the rest of the winter. Lots of bike riding; 80km yesterday, inc loads of off road then 3hrs mtb trail riding today (Surrey hills for you UK readers). Lots of work, lots of fun
And this is why cases are skyrocketing across the US.
See, the thing is you CAN control itā¦at least to some degree. Wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands. Do those things and you can significantly help mitigate the spread of the virus.
If it only affected you, Iād have no problem with this cavalier attitude. Your choice, your consequences. But your choice has the real possibility to directly ( and indirectly) affect others. Sure, you may have mild or no symptoms, but the person you pass it to (or the ones they may pass it to) could have severe symptoms or even die.
No. What is so unbelievably selfish are the complete hypocrites like yourself that sit there with lots of money in your pocket, able to put your kids in college, while guys like me owning a business struggle to feed my five kids. Busting my ass every day, (in your mind) risking my LIFE because I have to be in contact with lots of people to do so in a big office building (and Iām no better than the guys and gals who risk THEIR LIFE to go make minimum wage at McDonalds or the grocery store to keep YOUR ASS FED), but the second I want to race my bike OUTDOORS with my friends, some a-hole cries FOUL.
Gad, i hĆ¢te the internet thought police. Feel like Iām in Saudi Arabia dealing with the moral police. Same answer for me. Go to hell.
One is to earn money to live and feed your family and the other is to play bikes. If you get sick and subsequently infect people from working then thatās unfortunate but if that happens from doing something thatās purely recreational then yeah thatās a bit selfish.
And this ridiculous argument of āoh my job puts me at high risk of infection so why shouldnāt I do this other less risky thing for funā is just a terrible one. If anything, the fact that you are at a higher risk of being sick with COVID at any time from your job should make you want to limit how you expose others.
So yeahā¦putting yourself at risk for work isnāt selfish but doing the same to play bikes is selfish. I donāt think thatās a very difficult distinction.
Cases are surging in many parts of the world, itās not just a US thing. More time indoors and people are getting tired of the situation.
As stated above, covid isnāt going anywhere and we need to find a balance and that includes leisure activities and exercise. Those things are important to good health and a reasonable tradeoff with the increased risk of spreading covid for many folks. Calling that behavior selfish is technically accurate, but very misguided in my opinion. Living is selfish. Lots of things we do every day are killing the planet and putting others at risk around us. Driving a car or owning a nice bike are very selfish. Why donāt we have the government take those resources and help feed the world? Covid is certainly front and center these days and very polarizing, but society picks the balance, the government tries to enforce it, and most will not be happy with the balance that is struck. Some want to ignore covid, some think everyone should be locked in their houses. Neither of those options make any sense to me, but I understand that people feel that way. You can be upset about how the country is dealing with covid and you can try to affect change in a productive way, but shaming people who donāt agree with you is probably going to illicit a poor response.
Iāve been racing this year and plan to race next year. Itās just not an activity with a high risk of spread based on what I know about the virus. The travel aspect is probably the riskiest aspect when you are talking about big races, but no more risk than any type of travel/vacation activity.
Your post is full of logical fallacies, Iām afraid. There is no comparison between owning a nice bike and demonstrating reckless behavior re: transmitting a deadly virus. Same for driving a car.
In no way shape or form have I advocated locking yourself in your house and not going outside. In fact, I clearly illustrated ways you can more safely go about your life. Nor did I suggest not going out and exercising / training.
We absolutely have to find ways to open our society back upā¦but we need to do it safely. Saying āf*ck it, Iām tired of this schittā aināt it.
You can argue the extent of these things, but Iāll stand by my logic. Driving a car puts yourself and those around you at risk. 10ās of thousands die car accidents each year and many more die or get sick because cars destroy the environment. Itās not on the news every night because society has made the current balance somewhat acceptable. The government could reduce deaths by eliminating all cars or mandating only electric cars to reduce pollution (which some would push for right now). Or, they could say we could only drive cars under 20 mph to reduce fatalities.
I think itās a fair comparison and just highlights that covid is another risk that needs to be managed. and everyone has very different opinions on what the tradeoff should be.
Disneyworld is open right now. Is that responsible? As much as I love Mickey, I question whether thatās a good idea. That said, I also understand that over 50k people work at disneyworld and they need to feed themselves and their families. Kids (and adults) need to get out and have fun, even with all the bad stuff going on in the world.
Yep - there are a lot of watt monsters out there - Alex Dowsettā¦who is a World tour pro and won a stage in the Giro last month didnāt get a medal in the National 25! Iām just pleased if I get a ride in some of the races I enter!
I was due to ride the Tour of Flanders in late Spring. I think thatās most unlikely.
Iāll take a decision somewhere in February, but plan probably on making a return to TTing after almost 20 years away from it. Iāll probably get my arse handed to me, but so be it.
That aside, Iām not going to get into a āwhat activities are/are not acceptable/beneficial/selfish during Covidā discussion. They never lead anywhere but arguments.
Health authority
Government
Governing body (sport)
Organisers
Thing is, most organisers start shopping for sponsorship right around this time (or earlier), so even if events are allowed, current uncertainty about everything in 2021, ergo low/no sponsorship, might be the death knell for events
Again, your post relies on logical fallacies. Driving a car is a necessity in our societies. Going to a bike race is not. This is just factual. And we take steps, as a society, to mitigate the damaging effects of automobilesā¦better safety devices, seatbelt laws, emissions standards, speed limits, traffic laws, etc.
So letās be consistent when comparing the twoā¦using your logic, we should be taking steps to mitigate the negative impact of the virus so we can minimize the damaging aspects of itā¦wear a mask, social distance, avoid large crowds (including bike races), wash your hands, etc.
Glad we could reach a consensus. Have a great ride today.
Also to point out that the damaging effects of automobiles is not āaccidentalā, if it was, there would be no ācause of accidentā.
The damage is caused by individuals disregarding the mitigating steps in favour of pampering their own ego, e.g. speeding, the largest contributing factor to auto āaccidentsā and subsequent deaths.
Likewise, the spread of COVID, and subsequent deaths, can also be traced back to individuals disregarding the mitigating steps in favour of pampering their own ego, e.g. political rallies, motorcycle rallies, donāt tread on me, etc.
We can agree to disagree. Iām not trying to say the magnitude of the automobile situation is the same as the pandemic, but I think the logical comparison holds. Itās no less sad or tragic to see someone die in a car accident or from lung disease than it is from covid. The automobile side would actually be much easier to mitigate, so why would we sit by and let it happen every year?
We can also disagree on the definition of āfactā. In the history of mankind, cars were just recently invented, so Iād question the notion that they are necessary. Many thousands of years of evidence would prove otherwise. I like my car, but our society could find a way to live without them and save a bunch of lives.
Iām just pleased if I get a ride in some of the races I enter! 
